1. Technical Field
The present disclosure is directed to a backlight inverter and, more particularly, to a backlight inverter for a liquid crystal display device.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A liquid crystal display (“LCD”) device includes a thin-film transistor substrate, a color filter substrate facing the thin-film transistor substrate, and a liquid crystal layer between the thin-film transistor substrate and color filter substrate. The LCD device displays an image by applying an electric field to electrodes of the substrates to cause the liquid crystal to flow in the liquid crystal layer.
The liquid crystal layer does not emit light by itself and only adjusts the transmittance of incident light to display an image. Accordingly, the LCD device requires a backlight device to emit light sufficient to view an image.
The backlight device includes a plurality of fluorescent lamps and a backlight inverter for driving the fluorescent lamps. The backlight inverter converts a low direct current (DC) voltage into an alternating current (AC) voltage, boosts it using a transformer, and then supplies it to the fluorescent lamps in order to drive the fluorescent lamps.
The backlight inverter outputs a high level voltage to drive the fluorescent lamps and, therefore, requires a protection circuit to prevent the backlight inverter from operating in an abnormal driving state, such as the occurrence of electrical arcs, or open and short circuits.
An electrical arc created in the backlight inverter may burn out the transformer, which may result in a fire. The occurrence of an electrical arc may be difficult to detect because a current may flow in the backlight inverter even though the backlight inverter has an open circuit.